Canada2019112 minFrench, Vietnamese with English SubtitlesDrama, Family
A right-wing government controls Quebec, closing its borders and pushing immigrants to leave. Widower Hiên lives a meager life running a dépanneur. Enticed by his daughter Phuong’s move to Vietnam, Hiên makes arrangements to leave everything behind. But when a neighbourhood boy is left under the temporary care of Phuong’s aimless Quebecois boyfriend, Hiên is driven to solve the mystery of the boy’s missing mother.
Veteran Quebec actor Nguyên Thành Tri gives an intense performance as Hiên, a stoic ex-soldier with a deep history in conflict and post-war trauma, whose eyes have seen things many of us would never understand. Inspired by watching his refugee parents during the 1995 Quebec referendum, writer/director Ky Nam Le Duc’s film is framed by the Vietnamese refugee experience, where this not-so-alternate universe reveals desperate people in no-win situations whose only choice is to try to make the best of their newfound chaos.
– Aram Siu Wai Collier
Nguyên Thành Tri
Mickaël Gouin
Junior Jean-Baptiste
Alice Tran
OFFICIAL SELECTIONS
Festival du Nouveau Cinema, 2020
Gimli Film Festival, 2020
Ky Nam Le Duc
Ky Nam Le Duc studied film at UQAM and has directed a number of short films. His film, Oscillations (2017), premiered at Festival du Nouveau Cinema. He is a member of Les Films de l’Autre. The Greatest Country in the World (2019) is his latest feature film.
12 Nov, 2020 10:00 am
to 19 Nov, 2020 11:59 pm
PG
ASL interpretation will be made available thanks to Toronto Sign Language Interpreter Services. Ticket holders can watch on the CineSend Reel Asian portal.
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Founded in Toronto in 1997, Reel Asian is Canada’s largest pan-Asian film festival and a year-round cultural organization dedicated to championing Asian and Asian diasporic artists and storytellers. What began as a grassroots film festival has grown into a national platform supporting filmmakers and audiences through screenings, education, industry initiatives, artist development, and community programming presented across Toronto, the GTA, and online across Canada.
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